This invention concerns desks and seating areas for hospitality, education, study, outdoor use, and for business or residential use. In particular the invention relates to a compact structure providing a raised corner seating area for one or two with a desk of a specialized shape for the seated person(s), also providing a convenient bar or table for meeting with persons standing at the desk/bar outside the structure. The structure or pod can stand alone or be arranged in tandem with other pods.
Feeling safe when collaborating is the foundation of successful interactions, and increasing chance encounters is a proven way to increase idea exchange within a group. Providing physical places for this to occur has a paradox: creating a productive place in which to sit down to achieve privacy, refuge, or a sense of safety comes at the cost of erecting barriers to interaction. Any level of enclosure typically restricts entry to others sending out a message that one does not want to interact. It is also more difficult for chance interaction to occur because persons' eyes are not in the same height range. The desired effect of feeling secure is also partially negated by reducing one's height lower relative to passersby, thus unintentionally subordinating oneself. Sitting down and blocked off is the antithesis of establishing an environment to feel secure and encourage serendipitous interactions.
In an effort to provide areas that are more private and provide a sense of shelter, people create separate rooms with doors that create a strong barrier to interaction. Even less enclosed, semi private options often mostly enclose people where they can sit with eye level at around +48″, making it more difficult for someone walking by to interact. Even semi-private raised enclosures that get people's seated eyesight at roughly +60″ (around the eye level of people passing by) still block interactions because the booths or enclosures are very inward focused with no interface for guests to walk up and spontaneously join in without having to commit and take a seat. The need for persons walking by to take a chair also subtly implies a substantial time commitment to any meeting.
The primal need for a sense of personal physical and psychological security can be at odds with our other need to engage in social activities. The same barriers that protect, essentially repel. Whether in the context of work, study, reading, relaxation or other situations, people often prefer the psychological safety of a private space where interaction is limited and highly controlled, but it has a price: it limits interaction. Research shows that the best and fastest solutions to issues come from harnessing the group's intelligence via lots of spontaneous casual interactions. People still need to feel safe, but there has to be a high level of engagement. The most spontaneous interactions occur between people passing by each other, so any solution that seats people at regular chair height misses this goal.
The layers of isolating elements, and the additional time commitment chairs demand, act to discourage spontaneous interactions. This impedes upon the efficiency of individuals and groups of people working together. As a result, the group is less likely to harness the collective intelligence of the team to get the best answers to issues in the least amount of time.